Huntress is fresh off a North American tour with Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, and Testament, and is headed to the Duke tonight! It can be tough to get it up on a Monday night, but here are a few reasons to make it out for this show:

1) You’ve seen Iron Maiden more times in your life than you’ve flipped your mattress.

2) You’d sooner forget your underwear than your denim.

3) Not only do you know who King Diamond is, but you could apply his corpse paint with precision.

4) You have a weakness for a hot blonde bombshell that knows how to rock, and scares you as much as she turns you on.

5) You can’t remember the last time you had your face melted on a weekday.

The band last played here at the Isleta Amphitheater on the Mayhem tour. Seeing them on a smaller stage will be a real treat. Huntress will be at the Launchpad, joined by Carrion Kind, The Conjuring, and Death Rides A Horse. A measly eight bucks gets you in. Doors at 8. Show at 9:30.

If you want to see where metal is at, look no further than Bayonne—that's France, not New Jersey.

Albuquerque's knowledgeable metal fans exploded into cheers on Tuesday, Jan. 29, as everyone's favorite French metal band Gojira tore into the opening track "Explosia" from their 2012 release L'Enfant Sauvage.

Live, Gojira sets up a sonic force field made up of fast, staccato pounding rhythms behind which the band works its art. Aware of the conventions of metal, the band avoids them. The aesthetic extends even to its backdrop, a stylized leafy tree inside a human head instead of skulls, pentagrams, inverted crosses or flames.

Late in the show, the capacity crowd may have gotten got a glimpse into the Gojira creative process and the relationship at the core of the band when Joe Duplantier played a chugging solo riff that also incorporating ringing harmonics. Joined by his brother Mario on drums, the two played together much as one imagines they have over the years. The other members kicked in and they became Gojira. But the image that remains is of Joe riffing away, a man and his guitar in the night.

What separates those who go through the motions and those who could be headed somewhere could be what former President George H.W. Bush called "the vision thing." The Atlas Moth has the vision thing.

Crowded up at the front of the Sunshine stage, the young five-piece band from Chicago is fronted by singer/guitarist Stavros Giannopolous who, with his short hair, beard and hoodie looks like a guy who stocks produce or bags your groceries at Sprouts but who also possesses an unearthly scream and growl.

Their sound recalls a slower, heavier Isis. Andrew Ragin (guitar, keyboards and producer of 2011 release An Ache for the Distance) also cites Neurosis as a band favorite. Waves of sound from the individual instruments interact with each other like a speeded-up continental drift. Drummer Anthony Mainiero produces impossibly heavy beats from his small kit made up of nothing but a bass drum, floor tom, a snare and a few cymbals. People are taking notice of this band. Ragin said that Gojira, who know the band's music, called to invite The Atlas Moth on their current tour. Stavros is also a member of Twilight, which Noisecreep calls a "black metal supergroup." Twilight has a new member for their 2013 release, some recently divorced guy named Thurston Moore. Standing alone in the Sunshine lobby after the show, tired and under the weather a bit, Stavros looked like anything but a superstar. Full journalistic disclosure: I liked these guys so much I bought them a round of beers after their set.

Hardcore thrash metal outfit, Car Thief's new self-titled album is a blistering ride down a highway of bite-sized ragers. Short and salty (as opposed to sweet), the album's roster of 2 minute face-shredders blends high-speed guitar and bass stylings with growl/scream vocals to create a noisy melange of slammin' sound. A particular stand out on the record, Pre Load, takes the listener through a litany of change-ups without missing a beat. Their CD Release party at Burt's this Saturday night with DeadMary, Music is the Enemy, and Asscobra is gonna be a balls-out good time.

The Tesla show sold out last-minute at the Hard Rock on Saturday night. I was sulking alone with my Stoli & Tonic at the smoke-filled Center Bar when a middle-aged, long-haired rocker dressed in camo and white sneakers tried to scalp me a ticket. He wanted $50 but I talked him down to $20, and I was in!

There were no expectations: Just another band I had never seen live that I needed to cross off my list. Little did I know I was in for an ass-kicking surprise.

In 1986, after two years together, the band changed its name from City Kidd to Tesla and took the “Headbangers Ball” viewers by storm.

Tesla was lumped in with glam metal bands despite its lack of spandex, hair spray or makeup. Like many talented bands of the era, they went down with the rock ship as it collided with a glacier known as grunge in 1991. After a brief hiatus, the band was resurrected in the early oughts, and is proudly on tour in celebration of 25 years together.

With four out of five original members, Tesla sounded tight, looked amazing and had a vibrant stage presence. Say what you will about metal, but a live metal show will always deliver if there’s a solid drummer, lightning-fast guitarists, a vocalist with a vast range, and a sound engineer that can bring out the best in the music.

Tesla’s older, harder songs were surprisingly face-melting, while the newer stuff was refreshing—reminiscent but not redundant. Though "Love Song" tempted us all to hug our drunken neighbor, the real shining star was "Paradise," an epic tear-jerker of a power ballad that brought out the lighters and filled a small chasm in my cold, bitter heart.